It has recently been called one of television’s most ridiculous reality shows. But the new Channel 4 series Scared of the Dark will help audiences understand sight loss, a contestant has said.
The blind comedian Chris McCausland is one of eight famous faces who stepped out of the spotlight and into a pitch-black bunker for eight days for the experiment, hosted by Danny Dyer. It will show how they cope with the pressures of light deprivation and humanity’s primal fear of the dark.
During the series, the celebrities – who include Paul Gascoigne, Chris Eubank, Nicola Adams and Scarlett Moffatt – have to eat, live and navigate their way around the bunker. They will complete challenges to win treats and time in the light while watched by 50 infrared cameras by Dyer and a clinical psychologist, who will explain their behaviour.
Dyer said that when he was pitched the idea of the show, he thought: “Are they on fucking drugs, these people? It’s a mental idea, you’re not going to be able to get anyone to do it. Then they showed me the list of people and I thought: oh wow, this is really interesting.
“It’s showing that level of vulnerability that famous people don’t usually do because we’ve always got our guard up or [are] media trained. You’re completely exposing them in a new way, that’s what makes it interesting.”
According to McCausland, who lost his sight gradually when he was young owing to a hereditary condition called retinitis pigmentosa, Scared of the Dark raises the subject of blindness in a more “powerful, genuine and authentic” way because it is on an entertainment show.
He told the Guardian: “I think if you’d had a pitch from C4 for a show that creates awareness of being blind, I think it would’ve been absolutely awful … and condescending.”
Reality shows were usually quite vacuous, he said, but with this show, “for me it was really interesting that I would get to live with people who were being made to be blind … it really gave me the experience of being the most able out of everybody for a while.”
McCausland thinks Scared of the Dark – which will air across five consecutive nights from Sunday – will “create an amazing level of awareness of what it’s like to come to terms with not being able to see anything”.
During the series – which has already hit the headlines due to a row between Eubank and Gascoigne, and questions raised about whether it was in the best interests of the former footballer, who has bipolar disorder, to take part – McCausland is shown helping the others learn to live without their sight.
One of them, the actor Donna Preston, said: “You come out of it so grateful for your vision. No one understands that unless you’ve been in that bunker. I was so grateful to Chris; it’s so difficult navigating [things].”
Dyer said the show was “an insight into Chris’s world” and what “people with sight … take for granted every single day”. He said it was interesting that McCausland was “the alpha in there” whereas Eubank, despite his physicality, was “useless”.
Although a Danish and US gameshow called Total Blackout has pitted people against each other in challenges in darkness before, C4 claims the idea of immersing celebrities for 180 hours in pitch black is a world first.
A Royal National Institute of Blind People spokesperson said it was “great to see TV programmes being more inclusive with their casting” and they hoped Scared of the Dark would “help challenge misconceptions the public might have about disabled people”.
Game for a laugh? Some of the most outlandish TV gameshows ever
It’s a Knockout, BBC One, 1966 Giant obstacle-based physical series that spawned a Europe-wide and royal version.
Touch the Truck, Channel 5, 2001 Dale Winton-fronted endurance show featured contestants holding on to a truck for the longest to win it.
Naked Jungle, Channel 5, 2000 A nudist Crystal Maze meets It’s a Knockout, fronted by Keith Chegwin.
Shafted, ITV, 2001 Robert Kilroy-Silk’s ill-fated show created TV’s most infamous catchphrase, “to share or to shaft”.
Celebrity Shark Bait, ITV, 2005 Richard E Grant and Ruby Wax were among the stars locked in a metal cage in shark-infested waters.
Hole in the Wall, BBC One, 2008 Teams of celebrities tried to jump through shapes in a moving wall.
Heads or Tails, Channel 5, 2009 Justin Lee Collins oversaw contestants flipping a coin to try to win £1m.
Don’t Scare the Hare, BBC One, 2011 Contestants carried out a mad series of challenges against a giant robotic hare.
That Puppet Game Show, BBC One, 2013 The Muppets’ short-lived move into gameshows.
The Jump, C4, 2014 Insurance nightmare celebrity ski jump show created 34 casualties.
Flockstars, ITV, 2015 Celebrities attempt sheepdog trials.
Wild Things, Sky One, 2015 Couples dressed as animals competed on a woodland obstacle course.
Apocalypse Wow, ITV2, 2021 Gladiators meets BDSM.
Naked, Alone and Racing to Get Home, Channel 4, 2023 Race Across the World in the buff.
